TV Review - Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem

NBC's Days of Our Lives began as a daily daytime drama in November 1965. It is currently in its 56th season on the air and is about to begin its 57th. The series has won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series four times. Three of those have been within the past decade. In fact, a lot of the awards that the series has won in the major categories, not including the technical categories, have been within the past decade. Coincidentally, a decade ago is when I started watching. I started watching Days of Our Lives in June 2011 because that was when the character of Sonny Kiriakis was re-introduced to the series. Sonny was played by Freddie Smith. Sonny became the show's first regular character to be openly gay. My mother and aunt had hooked me onto soap operas, such as General Hospital and The Young and the Restless, but none had story lines involving same-sex couples, especially same-sex male couples. That changed in 2007 with Luke and Noah on CBS' As the World Turns and then in 2009 with Oliver and Kyle on ABC's One Life to Live. I was highly impressed with those story lines and those story lines kept me engaged with those shows. I had never watched Days of Our Lives before, but when the announcement came in 2011 that it would also have a same-sex male couple be romantically involved, I began tuning in.

The story line of Will Horton meeting and falling in love with Sonny Kiriakis was the show's first gay romance. It also subsequently led to the show making history with the first gay male wedding and marriage on daytime television. The actor who played Will Horton is Chandler Massey who also made history by winning the Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actor three times in a row. He also became the first actor to win a Daytime Emmy for playing a gay character. Given that Will and Sonny were the reasons I started watching and given how successful and historical the characters were, it was a shame when Days of Our Lives wrote their characters off the show in September 2020, exactly a year ago. Given their popularity, it was a wonder if the show would spin them off into a web series or a digital series as it did with Chad and Abby in Paris (2019) or Last Blast Reunion (2019), which were available on the DOOL app that people could stream on their phones.

We now wonder no more because the show has created an actual spin-off that's getting a bigger platform than the DOOL app and getting a longer running time than their digital series. Thankfully, this spin-off is including the characters of Will and Sonny, but they're not where we start. Where we start is on location at some place, shot in a way that looks cinematic. It made me curious to think if this entire series would be shot like a feature film or even a prime-time drama on NBC. No, the series has beautiful interstitial scenes that look cinematic, but the scenes involving the actors look as if they were still filming the soap opera as it's always been filmed. The actors seeming as if they're performing theater on a stage. If one didn't know better, one could absolutely mistake it for the regular Days of Our Lives series. This series is aesthetically no different, just as the DOOL app series were aesthetically no different.

Drake Hogestyn stars as John Black and Deirdre Hall stars as Marlena Evans. John and Marlena became what's known as a super-couple back in 1986, which means they have a 35-year history with each other. If one isn't familiar with that 35-year history, one might not get all the references or even the import of their presence here. Having watched for 10 years, I understand it a little. If one is familiar with that 35-year history though, then there are a lot of references here that will make long-time fans smile or perhaps be further engaged. It's always funny how some people might be put off by a piece of work that has that kind of history. Watching something like this could feel alienating, but, over the past decade, audiences have been trained on how to overcome that alienation, particularly young people.

If one has been a fan of super-hero films like those from Marvel Studios, such as Avengers: Endgame (2019), I dare say one will find commonality here. Those comic book movies and stories are basically soap operas for so-called geeks and nerds. That 2019 blockbuster involved a bunch of people running around trying to find gems called the Infinity Stones. All of the gems were different colors and various people all over the world were trying to collect them. This series is no different, as John and Marlena are told that they have to find a series of six gems that are pieces of the Alamainian Peaccock, an object as much of a MacGuffin as the Infinity Stones. The first was a Ruby in South Africa, but there are five others whose whereabouts are scattered.

Victoria Konefal and Robert Scott Wilson co-star as Ciara Brady and Ben Weston. Ciara and Ben are newlyweds who are having their honeymoon in New Orleans. They're hanging out in the French Quarter when they become involved in the same espionage plot as John and Marlena. Ciara sees one of the gems, an Amethyst made into a pin or brooch, inside the window of a jewelry shop and Billie Reed, played by Lisa Rinna (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), pulls them along in a chase to find the gem when it disappears from the jewelry shop.

Jackée Harry (227 and Sister Sister) also co-stars as Paulina Price, a wealthy real estate mogul from Miami who invites her niece and her niece's husband to stay at her paradise home on Miami's Star Island for the Labor Day weekend. Her niece is Lani Price, played by Sal Stowers. Lani's husband is Eli Grant, played by Lamon Archey. Along with them is Lani's father, Abe Carver, played by Emmy-winner James Reynolds. Abe is also Paulina's current love interest. Paulina reveals that she has another of the gems, an Orange Diamond, that has been made into a ring. Things get harry when two thugs pull a gun on them and steal the ring.

Thaao Penghlis and Leann Hunley play Tony DiMera and Anna DiMera, a husband and wife who are very wealthy and are currently in Zurich, Switzerland, visiting Anna's daughter, Carrie Brady, played by Christie Clark. Anna recently learned that Carrie had a fight with her husband. She came there to console her daughter. However, Carrie's husband, Austin Reed, played by Austin Peck, wants to fix things with his wife, so he sends Tony and Anna to bid on another one of the gems that's being auctioned in town. The gem is a Sapphire necklace.

Billy Flynn plays Chad DiMera, the younger brother to Tony who decides to go to Phoenix, Arizona, to visit his best friend, Sonny Kiriakis who is currently married to Will Horton and who is living with him and Will's daughter, Arianna. Will is still played by three-time, Emmy-winner Chandler Massey. However, Sonny Kiriakis is now played by Zach Tinker (The Young and the Restless). Freddie Smith who previously played the role for the better part of a decade did a podcast and YouTube video about why he turned down returning to the role after being let go last year. He did win an Emmy for his work and I did like his performance. However, it's clear that Tinker is fantastic. He has a fire in him that I haven't seen in any actor or character in years. I immediately wanted to see more of him. He even looks fabulous in drag.

I liked the chemistry between Tinker and Flynn. I believed that they had been best friends for years. They feel really comfortable with each other. Flynn is his typical charming self. The two of them are so good that you almost wish that those two were a romantic couple. Through the introduction of Leo Stark, played by the effervescent, Greg Rikaart (The Young and the Restless), we learn that Sonny, Will and Chad are pulled into a hunt for the fifth gem, an Emerald. All of it though is a veiled excuse to allow Rikaart to inject a ton of sexual innuendo, along with the wit and sass of an effeminate and flirtatious gay man, played by an actual openly gay actor. Yet, as an LGBTQ person, it was amazing to have something like this on daytime television. This is probably the gayest thing that any soap opera has ever given us.

Rated TV-14.

Running Time: 1 hr. / 5 eps.

Available on Peacock.